#ASEchat 108 Challenges of practical work in science teaching

#ASEchat Summary 108

The challenges and benefits of practical work in science teaching

Monday 8th July 2013, 8pm

with @alomshaha, summary by @viciascience

Overview

This complex topic raised much passionate debate. On the one hand, practical work in science teaching is seen as a ‘good thing’, fulfilling pupil and parent expectations on what science is about, providing motivation and engagement in learning and showing young people what it means to be a scientist. On the other hand there was a significant body of opinion pointing out the difficulty in finding evidence that practical work contributes to learning in science. There was a clear sense that practical work needs to be defended against pressures from outside the science teaching community. How it should be defended was the subject of heated debate.

Throughout the chat there was some forthright debate between those whose own experiences guided their opinions, and those who were strongly influenced by the findings of educational research. Without ‘taking sides’ in this I suggest that the following blog may be helpful, (http://lauramcinerney.com/2013/07/10/its-not-scientific-evidence-based-policy-until/) and that this particular debate needs to be continued, perhaps outside ASEChat.

Below I provide a flavor of some of the points made, links to external sources (mainly research papers but also video links), some interesting opinions and suggestions, and then finally I have listed some aspects of the discussion that needed fuller treatment and may benefit from their own ASEChat session in future. I have provided references if you wish to read the context of the various comments from the archive.

The challenges facing practical work

Much is a waste of time as it is not helping learning (Bio Joe 19.02)

Difficult to elicit learning (Mr D Cheng 19.07)

It reinforces the misconception of the ‘scientific method’ (Peter Slade 19.44)